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Piquet leads the way at Homestead truck practice

November 15, 2012

Nelson Piquet Jr., shown earlier this year in Michigan, was the fastest truck in practice this afternoon. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Local fan favorite Nelson Piquet Jr. was fastest in Friday afternoon’s only practice session before tonight’s season-ending, championship-deciding Camping World Truck Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The Brazilian son of former three-time World Driving Champion Nelson Piquet has a huge following among Latino and Hispanic fans in south Florida.

In a Chevrolet for Turner Motorsports, Piquet was quickest at 167.619 miles per hour around the 1.5-mile track south of Miami, in Homestead. Toyota driver Parker Kligerman was second-fastest at 167.224 mph, Chevy driver Cale Gale was third at 167.074 mph and Chevy drivers Joey Coulter and Kyle Larson were fourth and fifth at 167.007 mph and 166.795 mph.

The back-five in the two-hour session were championship contenders Timothy Peters and Ty Dillon, then Sprint Cup star Kyle Busch, Matt Crafton and Justin Lofton. Point-leader James Buescher was only 19th-fastest at 163.915 mph. Teams will qualify at 4:30 this afternoon and run their 134-lap, 201-mile race tonight at 8.

Buescher goes into the race with an 11-point lead over Peters and a 12-point lead over Dillon. He’ll win his first NASCAR title and first for owner Steve Turner by finishing seventh or better, even with no laps led. He can finish eighth if he leads even one lap or ninth if he leads the most laps. He’s been the point leader the last three weekends, taking it from Dillon at Martinsville Speedway the last weekend in October.

Trucks going to Canada for road race

NASCAR has confirmed that it’ll run a Truck Series race on Sept. 1, 2013 at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park near Toronto. It’ll be the series’ first road race since Greg Biffle won for Jack Roush at Watkins Glen in June of 2000. NASCAR has traditionally run a Truck Series race near Atlanta on Labor Day weekend. No word if Atlanta will get a stand-alone Truck Series race, although it seems unlikely.